Welcome To Your Hats

For as long as I can remember, hats have always been one of my all time loves. Collecting them brimmed, to beanies, since my late teens, you can imagine how many I’ve been through. When I came across Goorin Bros., my all time favorite hat store, you better believe, I stepped into an alternate world.

You may wonder what makes Goorin Bros. so special? Well, when you walk into a store, it’s like stepping back into time. There’s a very classic, Bugsy Siegel meets Judy Garland feel, with purposefully-aged suitcases, cleverly stacked as displays, and a section dedicated to the myriad of adorning feathers to accessorize, and personalize, your piece. Handsome cabinets lined up perfectly, categorize the many choices of hats. Each hat handler is dressed to the nines, and artfully dusts off, and presents your pick, while you make your final judgements, modeling in front of a full length mirror. Each hat bringing out a different version of yourself, as you try them on for size. These custom services leave you wonting for the days of personal touches. Upon purchase, your piece is carefully packed in an aesthetically pleasing box, and you’re given advice on how to store them properly. What can I say? I’m a sucker for this kind of attention to detail.

February has begun, and phrases like thankful focus, deep breathes of clarity, and joyful capacity have been swirling around my spirit for weeks to apply. I knew it was something to blog about, but how without sounding too academic? Ahh, the subject of hats came up.

No matter how many or how few, each of us wear them. I dare to say we choose to wear them. The different hats, such as business owner, wife, friend, brother, writer are just a few of their many descriptions. One cannot be the other, and although interchangeable, each bring out distinct features all their own. In our unawareness of their existence it can get pretty dicey when things move too fast, and we inadvertently grab for the wrong one, wearing it out of turn. For example, speaking to your husband, while having your Mom hat on. What a train wreck that can start. We’ve all done it, and there is no shame.

In my own life, accepting the invitations to having an array of hats, is a unique responsibility. If I’m not careful, some very special substances can get lost in the mix. The thankful could be taken away from the focus. The deep breathe, taken away from the clarity. And as many of us have experienced, certainly the joyful, can be taken away from capacity. It can easily turn from, “I get to do this’ to “let’s get it done.” Without the honorary adjectives, they become old hats that have lost their luster. And a hat without it’s distinct features, becomes something we grab to cover up a bad hair day, or a substitute, for an umbrella, but at one point, they were prized possessions. Focus, clarity, and capacity can become very clinical, and robotic without the love and appreciation we were graced to be given them to wear, in the 1st place.

What a different experience I had with each hat when I really took the time to understand, which hat I was putting on. I took note of my emotions, attitude, and how my body felt. The best way I can describe it is, more room was made for each one. In so doing, I could really relax, and wear each hat well. Wiser, at seeing opportunities of when to take one off, to put another on, the transitions for each got smoother.

I was moved to write about this after hearing a story from one of my clients. Going through a nasty divorce, her friend, angry and in shock, was told by her husband, that he wasn’t in love with her anymore. He went on to say, he wasn’t sure if he ever was, and needed to move on. You can imagine how deep those daggers went after 15 years of marriage, and 3 kids. I was heartbroken for her friend. Although I know there’s always 2 sides to every story, I couldn’t help but think, the hats of husband, father, and life partner, that he chose to wear at one time, were cast off as if he never chose them at all. How did they become robotic to him? But if we’re truthful, the robotics gets in there a lot easier than we’d like to admit. When was the last time he dusted them off?

We’re starting a week dedicated to celebrating love, and I can’t help but see the timing. We can be like Goorin Bros., where personal touch never goes out of style. Where every hat is pristinely cared for. The alternative, is losing sight, and forgetting we ever wanted them in the 1st place.

I’m motivated to say, “Welcome to YOUR hats!” Identify, categorize, and care for them this year. We won’t be perfect, but we can be persistent in choosing to wear them well.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”-1 Corinthians 13